Among the early sources of information concerning the issues discussed in the present chapter, some of the most valuable are known thanks to the Tao- ist priest Wang’s revelation at the beginning of the twentieth century of the hidden text chamber in Dunhuang Mogao cave 17. His discovery brought to light roughly 4,000 Tibetan texts and documents dating to the last cen- turies of the first millennium, of which many stem from the period of the Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang and the surrounding regions. These mate- rials, whose value for historical scholarship was first recognized by M.A. Stein and Paul Pelliot, remain the bedrock for all study of dynastic and early post- dynastic Tibetan culture and history, and, a full century after their discovery, there remain plenty of surprises for us within them. nevertheless, investiga- tions of these texts have generally lagged behind the study of the larger cor- pus of Chinese-language manuscripts also revealed in cave 17.38 One area in
which this is quite conspicuous involves the use of Dunhuang manuscript sources in connection with the interpretation of other types of material evi- dence from Dunhuang and elsewhere: whereas the Chinese documents have sometimes been found to refer to specific, identifiable sites, temples, icons, and so forth, relatively little progress has been made in locating convincing correlations between Tibetan Dunhuang texts and other archeological and art historical remains.39
One of the most famous of these Tibetan documents is an incomplete manuscript, roughly the last half of which is preserved in two separate sec- tions, catalogued respectively as PT 16 in the Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France and IOL Tib J 751 in London’s British Library.40 (As the text has
come to be known conventionally as the “Prayers of Dega Yutsel,” this is the usage that we shall follow here.) The portions available to us provide a highly formalized series of prayers and memorials, celebrating the establishment of
The treaty temple of the turquoise grove 31 a temple, known as the “Temple of the Treaty” (gtsigs kyi gtsug lag khang), at a place called Dega Yutsel, the “turquoise grove of Dega.” The text was first studied, and parts of it translated, by F.W. Thomas in his pioneering researches, Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turke- stan.41 Since his time, valuable comments on it have been presented in the
writings of Ariane Macdonald and Rolf Stein;42 and additional contributions
of geographical importance, to be considered in some detail below, are found in the remarks of Hugh Richardson and Géza uray, among others.
As the narration of the text itself makes clear, the Temple of the Treaty was founded during the reign of the Tibetan tsenpo Tri Tsukdetsen, i.e. Relpachen,43 famed in later Tibetan historiography for his lavish patronage of
Buddhism.44 Following the traditions codified by his father Tri Desongtsen,
he was raised under the tutelage of Buddhist monks, no doubt including Pelgi Yönten.45 The foundation of the Temple of Treaty was intended to commem-
orate the council and subsequent treaty concluded between Tibet and the powers of China, the uighurs, and possibly nanzhao, during the first years of the 820s.46 The religious solemnity of the treaty was no doubt underscored
by the construction of a temple in its honor, for the very name by which it is designated means literally the “temple of the treaty-edict.”47 The location for
the temple’s construction, moreover, is described as the “plain of the peace council” (mjal dum thang). In the following sections, I shall attempt to offer some suggestions regarding where precisely this is, and to suggest further that the temple in question may in fact still exist.
The “Prayers of Dega Yutsel,” as it has been preserved, consists of a series of benedictions honoring the foundation of the temple, beginning on the numbered folio 22 of the manuscript. While we have no evidence as to what may have occupied the missing folios 1–21—further benedictions, selections from appropriate scriptures, or perhaps even a detailed narrative account of the temple’s creation and the events surrounding it—given the careful prepa- ration of the work, it is most unlikely that materials not related in some way to Temple of the Treaty would have been included therein.
Of the seven surviving benedictions, the sources of five may be identified and these were all explicitly offered by prominent parties in the Tibetan colo- nial administration of what is today Gansu. A general outline of the portions of the manuscript that have been preserved runs as follows:
(1) “Offered as a prayer . . .” (PT 16, 22a1–32b4: smon lam du gsol ba//). As the title in this case evidently began on the now missing folio 21, we have no way of knowing just who presented this prayer. It is by far the
32 buddhism between tibet and china
most elaborate of the group, and, given the apparent arrangement of the collection according to descending hierarchical rank-order, must have emanated from among the highest echelons of Tibetan civil or religious authority.48 We shall return to this issue in discussing this
remarkable text in greater detail.
(2) “Offered as a prayer, and presented as a donation, by the domain of the great military headquarters49 of Yarmotang, on behalf of the Three
Jewels in connection with the edification of the most famous Temple of the Treaty concluded at the great council with China, the uighur, etc.” (PT 16, 33a1 - IOL Tib J 751, 35a3: rgya drug las stsogs pha mjal duṃ chen po mdzad pa’ï gtsïgs gyï gtsug lag khang grags pha chen po bzhengs pa’ï dkon mchog gsum la dbyar mo thang khrom chen po khaṃs nas smon lam du gsol ba dang/ yon du dbul ba’//). The identity of the place called Yarmotang, which is of central importance in the present context, will be the subject of further discussion.
(3) “Offered as a prayer by50 the Pacification Minister on the occasion of
the consecration of the Temple of the Treaty of Dega” (IOL Tib J 751, 35a3–38b2: de ga gtsïgs kyi gtsug lag khang zhal bsro ba’ï tshe bde blon gyï smon lam du gsol ba’//). The “Pacification Minister” (bde blon) was among the highest ranked of the Tibetan colonial officers and seems to have been, in effect, the governor of Tibet’s conquests in Gansu and adjacent territories.51
(4) “Offered as a prayer by the great military headquarters of Khartsen on behalf of the Temple of the Treaty of the Turquoise Grove of Dega” (IOL Tib J 751, 38b2–39b1: de ga g.yu tshal gtsigs gyï gtsug lag khang du mkhar tsan khrom chen pos smon lam du gsol ba//). The toponym “Khartsen” may have been applied at various points to several different locations, but in our present context, as will be seen momentarily, it can only refer to Liangzhou, to the northeast of Kokonor in Gansu.52
(5) “Offered as a prayer by the great military headquarters of Guazhou on behalf of the Temple of the Treaty of the Turquoise Grove of Dega” (IOL Tib J 751, 39b1–40a2: de ga g.yu tshal gtsigs kyï gtsug lag khang du kwa cu khrom chen po nas smon lam du gsol ba//). The Tibetan tran- scription of Guazhou (kwa cu) is unambiguous and corresponds to the well-known region of Anxi in northwestern Gansu, to the imme- diate east of Dunhuang.
(6) “Offered as a prayer by the chiliarch of Chuktsam and his servitors” (IOL Tib J 751, 40a2–41a1: phyug tsams stong pon dpon g.yog gï smon
The treaty temple of the turquoise grove 33 lam du gsol ba’//). Though the location of Chuksam is uncertain, ref- erences in other Dunhuang texts, to which we shall have occasion to return, suggest that it was also in the vicinity of present day Anxi.53
(7) “Offered as a prayer by Drom Pékhongma (?)” (IOL Tib J 751, 41a2– 41b4: ’brom ?spe khong ?ma’ï smon lam du gsol ba’//). The reading of several syllables of the donor’s name is in this case uncertain.54
In sum, the provenance of the manuscript in Dunhuang comports closely with the geographical frame of reference that is represented within it, that is, far western Gansu. As will emerge, however, though I am in favor of regard- ing matters from this angle, it is a conclusion that will prove in some respects problematic once the sum of the evidence is reviewed.
The “Prayers of Dega Yutsel” includes, in addition to the formal features of Buddhist dedicatory texts—salutations, praises, aspirations on behalf of living beings, etc.—a considerable amount of historical detail concerning the circumstances under which the temple came to be established by two very prominent ministers, Zhang Trisumjé and Zhang Lhazang. The histori- cal narrative is repeated in longer or shorter form in several of the prayers,55
which reproduce essentially the same account with the addition or subtrac- tion of some elements of information. In the first and fullest of the surviving prayers, the foundation of the temple is related as follows:
25b3 . . . The divine tsenpo of Tibet, the lord of men appointed by the gods, Tri Tsukdetsen, like a body magically emanated by his ancestors, 25b4 is inscrutable56 and revered, like heaven and earth. upright and equan-
imous, he commands all creatures. Open and expansive, his religious and political wisdom are refined in accordance with custom.57 His
governance, sagacious and firmly crowned,58
26a1 is of great splendor so that [all] under the sun59—even the kingdoms
of the south, north, east, and west—receive his order with respect, and are gathered under his sway,60 wherefore all of his undertakings
are altogether realized as he intends.
26a2 The great ministers of [his] governance [as it has been just described] are the great minister Zhang Trisumjé and the great Zhang Lha- zang, who, owing to the excellence of their intelligence are like pre- cious wish-granting gems. Through their heroic labors61 the Chinese,
uighurs,
26a3 and others who were inflated with their own pride, having become objects of wrath, due to [their] enmity were defeated, their splendor
34 buddhism between tibet and china
annulled and the source of their cunning effaced. Their weapons of enmity
26a4 were laid down, and great fidelity then followed.62 As for the increase
of the good, having enthroned the best, nobility and honor may be firmly upheld.63 Being without conflict, having treated [one another]
as dear,64 the one kingdom of Tibet,
26b1 for both its high and low subjects, both its great and small, enjoys the pervasive grace of happiness, for each at his own door. Having established Great Tibet, China and the uighurs, etc., in an age of hap- piness in each of their respective countries, the Chinese and uighurs, moreover,
26b2 requested that there be a governmental peace council, and, as if among men of a single household, a treaty for a common peace with the pow- ers of China and the uighurs was made in the auspicious land, Dega Yutsel, the peace-council plain.
26b3 Thereupon, as a sign of [its] truth, so that the limits of government would be perpetually unshaken and firm, and forever trusted by the many, it was inscribed upon a stone pillar. And afterward, this shrine of the Three Jewels was established in accord with the transmission of the
26b4 sūtra—“When someone establishes a temple in the world, as an image of that great merit a gods’ mansion arises in the Akaniṣṭha heaven”—
27a1 declared by the Buddha. The great benefactors who have established the Temple of the Treaty-Edict (gtsigs kyi gtsug lag khang) are the great minister Zhang Trisumjé and the great Zhang Lhazang. 27a2 Several benefactors, rejoicing in this, joined the effort with faith and
devotion.
The expressed motivations of the two ministers, however, extended beyond their urge to celebrate the peace, honor their lord, and make merit. Contri- tion for the damage wrought by war is a further theme of importance in these prayers, contributing to the exceptional value of their testimony. This is most clearly evident in the prayer of the Pacification Minister, who writes: 38a2 . . . Formerly, when we did not convene with China and the uighurs
in governance, and there were hostilities between us, the Divine Son of firm crown, and the heroic and intelligent ministers,
The treaty temple of the turquoise grove 35 power of many armies brought down the enemy’s fortresses, defeated them in battle, conquered the land, cut off their supplies,66
38a4 etc. Many of the enemy’s men and beasts were deprived of life, and what was not given [to us] was taken [by us]. We pray that all of these sins, by the splendor and brilliance of this great merit [derived from the foundation of the temple], be overcome and purified.67
It is perhaps here, above all, that we remark the depth to which Buddhist sentiments and values had penetrated the discourse of these servants of the tsenpo, for the rhetoric of earlier Tibetan martial culture seems to have left little place for reflection upon the horrors of war.68
Finally, we may note that although the kingdom of nanzhao is mentioned on four separate occasions in the prayers,69 it is omitted from all references
to the battles preceding the peace-council. One can imagine that, although nanzhao may not have been a party to the hostilities that necessitated the negotiation of the treaty, it was invited nevertheless to dispatch an emissary. Perhaps it was the case that those responsible for the security of the Tibetan empire along its eastern borders, tired of wars that were proving costly and indecisive, wished to settle its frontiers once and for all. In all events, of the seven treaties that we know Tibet to have negotiated with Tang China, the treaty of 821/822 was the only one that ever held.70